Latest / Culture Positive: An Infection Prevention Podcast / Professional Spotlight: Columbus did what?
Transcript
- Ally: Thank you for listening to Culture Positive. If you have any questions or ideas for an episode, please send me an email at culturepositivepod at gmail.com. References for the episode can be found in the show notes. Infection prevention is about more than policies and protocols. It's about people. Until next time, stay curious. One of the things I love most about public health is the diversity. I love learning about where people come from, their journey to finding public health, and also seeing if they have any wisdom to impart. I hope to have guests that are not only able to share their background and expertise, but also the why behind their work. For my first guest, I'm having one of my favorite humans on. Welcome to Culture Positive, an infection prevention podcast where healthcare, public health, and real life meet. I'm Allie, and by day I work in infection prevention at an academic hospital, bringing my background in epidemiology and public health into everyday practice. Each episode will dive into healthcare stories. Like I said at the top of the podcast, I love hearing about people's backgrounds and how they got into the field. So if we could start off with how did you end up in public health? Kaylee Sandu Bajaj. Let's get into it. Public health conversation, workplace reality, historical context, and the human side of this work. This is a space for curiosity, honesty, and hopefully some inspiration. I'm glad you're here. Stay compassionate and keep building a culture that's truly positive. Kaylee, before we get started, I do want to take a minute to acknowledge how much you've already accomplished in your education and career. She is a proud, and when I say proud, a very proud Mississippi State alum where she studied anthropology before going on to earn her master's of public health. She concentrated in epidemiology with her MPH from Boston University. I had the pleasure of meeting her while we were both at the Massachusetts State Health Department, where she focused on vaccine preventable and zoonotic diseases. Whether she was responding to outbreaks or providing education to the public, Kaylee brought both expertise and energy to her work. As you mentioned, I started my education in anthropology, and I assumed I would take that into a lifelong career of archaeology, all based on my childhood hero, Indiana Jones. I did actually have the opportunity to do quite a bit of what we call biological archaeology, which is the archaeology of human remains while I was in college. And was during this time when I was dealing with the evidence of people who existed in the past. Always managing to make sure even the most challenging days a little more engaging for those around her. When COVID-19 shifted priorities, she stepped into the role of internship and training coordinator. She supported and mentored others with patience, leadership, and a genuine commitment to their growth during an especially demanding time. She has since transitioned to an academic hospital where she now serves as an infection preventionist, continuing to make meaningful impact through her dedication to patient safety. That my interest started to pivot towards epidemiology. I first learned about epidemiology via the research I was participating in with my college mentor, Dr. Molly Zuckerman, around the ways that syphilis moved through the world and ended up in Europe. Many don't know that syphilis is one of the few diseases that leaves evidence of infection on the human skeleton. Without modern treatments, also known as antibiotics, syphilis would advance to its tertiary and lethal stage. and public health. Kaylee's passion, adaptability, and ability to connect with others truly set her apart. It has been a privilege to watch her career grow and see the impact she makes every day, not only as a colleague, but also as a friend. Welcome to Culture Positive, Kaylee. Thank you so much. Happy to be here. Which leaves a physical pitting on the human skull. So, by reviewing skeletal remains across the globe, anthropologists like Dr. Zuckerman have been able to identify that syphilis actually did not exist in Europe until Christopher Columbus brought it back with him by way of human trafficking indigenous Americans in the 1490s. As an undergraduate, this was my first exposure to global epidemiology and the idea of disease movement to new populations. And ultimately it was what helped me make up my mind about going to graduate school for public health. While I love anthropology and it'll always be a part of me, and I really see the world through the lens of anthropology, I ultimately in my career decided that I wanted to help the living. That's awesome. I ⁓ you taught me something. I didn't realize bones could show that kind of disease. That's so interesting. Yeah, absolutely. Tuberculosis is another ⁓ disease that when left untreated. Can have skeletal evidence as well. There's a lot of overlap in forensic anthropology with epidemiology for sure. Yeah, that's that's amazing. And I I also have to say I'm personally very jealous I wanted to study anthropology and be an archaeologist. So I love talking to you about this. So thank you for sharing that. And ⁓ you also talking about anthropology. You know, you said it kind of stays with you now. Is there anything that you wish everyone would take time to learn about that has to do with anthropology? Or do you think like, is there something like in a high school course that everyone should learn that has to do with anthropology? I wish high school would bring up anthropology. I feel like this is mostly, you know, like a College of Arts and Sciences option for College students, maybe you're facing what your extracurriculars might be. ⁓ I really would encourage people to join like an anthropology club or check out that intro to cultural anthropology class, medical anthropology if you're studying medicine or interested in public health. That's where I learned about Dr. Paul Farmer. ⁓ He's a medical anthropologist as well as a physician. Lots of overlap in these fields. The biggest thing I think I see. ⁓ the world through the lens of when it comes to anthropology is the concept of reciprocity. ⁓ the idea that ⁓ you do things for others and others do things for you. This is the foundation of all human relationships. And I find that it comes up with work values, family values, but it's really interesting to study from a formal lens. Yeah, that's amazing. ⁓ Paul Farmer, what an incredible light in our field and greatly missed, but we're we're lucky to have even have had him in our world. Yeah, I did get to meet him in grad school. He came and gave a talk at Boston University. ⁓ and I actually had him sign my copy of Infections and Inequalities, which was a really special moment. ⁓ that's amazing. And you know, kind of talking to reciprocity and your anthropology work and bringing that into public health, you know, knowing you and being able to work with you, I don't think It's a coincidence that you are so big on being a proponent for comprehensive orientations and trainings. I know you've done that not only in your current role as an infection preventionist, but also your time at the Massachusetts State Health Department. And I just think it's incredibly important to have clear communication in our field when orienting a new member of our team or when we have emerging pathogen recently with COVID. I guess my question is, what drives or pushes you to want to have successful training experience for others? And you've made that such like a core part of your your current work. And I'm just curious how you got there. I really enjoy mentorship ⁓ and this concept that Sometimes you really just need to be able to shadow someone in a field you're interested in, ⁓ have a career adult make time for you as a student or a graduate student to try and really see firsthand what you could be interested in doing. So the mentorship side, in terms of running an internship program for master's students, that was really important to me that people get real world experience before choosing their career path. And then when it comes to like colleagues that I might train into the roles that we're currently in, I think resources are really important to make really clear and available for people. And sometimes organizations like huge academic hospitals can struggle with making that available in everyone's niche. So it's really the onus is really on your colleagues to train you to the job that you're in. They're already doing it and they're the best equipped. To show you how. So I like that peer-led learning ⁓ to some extent and just really making sure that someone feels comfortable to ask questions and learning should always be a safe space. absolutely. And going back to that mentorship, it sounds like undergrad you had a great mentor. grad school ⁓ also had great ⁓ Were those mentors able to kind of help you through the transition from your master's in public health into working? Absolutely. I remember one of my first days at the health department at my very first job, ⁓ 23 years old, I was doing Zika virus contract work. and Dr. Katie Brown, who is the ⁓ state vet in Massachusetts, came rushing into my office. I hadn't even met her yet, and she was flapping my resume in her hand, and she was like, You've done archaeology and we just had this great conversation about how non-traditional paths can lead you to a public health field. And she definitely was a treasured mentor for me at the health department. And ⁓ I feel like you'll find that public health and ultimately also infection prevention, similar stories about my current role in IP, ⁓ are just really friendly open places and everybody's open to these diverse backgrounds. ⁓ and like the different skills that everyone can bring to the table as a result. Yeah, absolutely. And you kind of briefly mentioned your work ⁓ as a contractor for Zika. ⁓ but I know you also did ⁓ along with zoonotic, you also did some vaccine preventable diseases. in your ⁓ in your career span, you've had so much experience. What did your early career look like out of grad school? I had to pay the bills. So I started applying for jobs several months prior to graduation. I think I applied to over 30 jobs and ended up having two interviews. ⁓ so if you're in that stage of grad school, just keep persevering. but I was fortunate enough to be interviewed by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and take on What was a short-term role to enroll moms and babies into the United States Zika ⁓ Mothers and Infants ⁓ Pregnancy Registry? And that was really eye-opening and it really combined my my interest that I developed in grad school, which was zoonotic infections and maternal health and infant health. So I did really enjoy that early role in an intro to epidemiology and public health, and ultimately moved into. ⁓ kind of a quote unquote regular epidemiologist role at the health department after that. And remind me, like what what year was that? Because I feel like Zika, like that was when Zika was pretty hot, right? Yeah, that was ⁓ the very start of twenty seventeen. I started that job after right after New Year's Day, twenty seventeen. So Yeah, I feel like Zika was a hot topic kind of around that time and Still a lot of investigations were going on and a lot of learnings were happening. A lot of panicked calls from people who had traveled to Miami includ and other places abroad, you know, women who were worried about their exposure to mosquitoes. Part of our role was to speak to the public about their risk level. So it was interesting. It was like a really diverse first job. Yeah, absolutely. And ⁓ with the vaccine preventable as well, I know that. was a lot of work and became, you know, kind of the top of everyone's tongue with COVID when that emerged. So you've really you've really run the gamut. Yeah, the vaccine preventables still haunt us with measles popping back up. I have done measles investigations. They're extensive to say the least, and really rely on people being vaccinated. So I encourage everyone listening to check on their MMWR and that of their family and their loved ones. ⁓ you'd be surprised. So It has been ⁓ I want to speak for everyone in public health, but I do think it has been ⁓ hard disappointing to see vaccination rates going down. ⁓ and just wishing the correct communications were going out to the public. But that can probably be I could rant about that forever. So I'll go on to ⁓ kind of pivoting to your current role in infection prevention. So thinking about your current work, what are you most proud of when you think of your time in infection prevention? You know, I'm pretty new to infection prevention. I'm almost at my four year anniversary ⁓ in IP, a pivot I made ⁓ post-COVID burnout. just wanted to learn some new things and see a different side of public health. I would say ⁓ the device rounds working group that I've started ⁓ internally within my infection preventions team. ⁓ I was not super well versed in a lot of the hospital and patient specific parts of the job and mostly developed the group so that I could learn from my colleagues and figure out how they were doing their job so that I could do what I was supposed to do. ⁓ and it's become this really big like learning experience for all of us and it's just a great collaboration and we shadow each other as we do device rounds on ⁓ each other's units and just get more engaged in like maybe patient populations that we don't see regularly. Like I focus on adult populations, so there's a lot for me to learn in the pediatric space. ⁓ and because of the device rounds working group, I have the opportunity to work with colleagues who do have that experience and expertise and ⁓ I can learn from or colleagues that are using products that I don't yet have on my units, I can go see and what what's that like and how are the staff adapting to that. So I think ⁓ so far in my current role I've been mostly proud of. just propelling collaboration with colleagues and trying to enhance my own learning. And for those who are listening who may not know, ⁓ what device rounds? Yeah, device rounds is ⁓ it can look a little different depending on the infection preventionist conducting them. And we're also not the only field ⁓ in the hospital that is doing device rounds. ⁓ This also like a ⁓ nursing ⁓ a physician ⁓ But ⁓ in what I do with device rounds is I work with my ⁓ CNS on my unit and we pair up to check out patient lines. So this is gonna be urinary catheters, central venous catheters, ⁓ to make sure that the dressing integrity looks good, that we have followed hospital policy about how frequently the dressing should be changed, ⁓ if there's any patient specific problems. ⁓ In the neurosciences, we struggle with excessive sweating and body temperature regulation. So sometimes patient lines and dressings, dressings need to be changed more frequently due to that. ⁓ So just like problem solving in the moment and making sure that as an infection preventionist, I can get eyes on ⁓ vulnerable patients that might need might benefit from some prevention efforts so that we don't see collapsies and CODIS. And as a member of your working group, I very much enjoy it. And it's ⁓ I appreciate learning from others. And I think that is kind of a key foundation, if you will, in infection prevention as a whole is collaboration. You're always working with others, either on your team or throughout the hospital. And I think the device working group is a great example of that. Thank you. Happy to have you on there. Thank you. You're one of the many people who teaches me. ⁓ New things. Listen, we all teach each other. That's that's part of that's part of being on a team. So kind of speaking about, you know, interest in public health and infection prevention. Let's say we have someone listening. They were us in grad school, trying to figure it out, seeing that you don't have to be a nurse anymore to get into infection prevention. ⁓ What would you tell someone who's interested in the field of infection prevention? I would say your communication skills are gonna override your subject matter expertise ⁓ almost every time and your ability to collaborate with others in the hospital and understand and respect that everyone's role is important in your hospital ecosystem from your medical director to your EVS staff. and just Yeah, being okay with learning new things and plunging into the unknown. Yeah, Learn something new every day. ⁓ will learn along the way just like I have. Exactly. Yep. Same with me. we're winding down on our talk today, but something I do want to ask all of my guests ⁓ is understanding the behind the work that you do. ⁓ You know, why why did you pick this? What's what's the driving factor for you? I think ⁓ like I referenced earlier, helping real living people of today ⁓ feels more aligned with my values long term and ⁓ being able to have like a more direct impact on the world around me. ⁓ that's kind of what keeps me going. I'm definitely a helper. Yeah. You are an excellent helper. And you helped me out by coming on today. So thank you so much for coming. And we do at the end of every episode, we do kind of have a huddle corner. And I'm hoping for when I have guests on, if they can share any readings or resources that they think are helpful or piqued their interest that they would like to share with others who might be interested. Do you have any recommendations? Absolutely. ⁓ If you're listening and you were interested in what I was saying about ⁓ Christopher Columbus and the syphilis and trepanemal diseases, ⁓ that is touched on in a book called Fourteen Ninety One by Charles C. Mann. ⁓ and I read that in college and it was super fascinating to me at the time and aligned with kind of that anthropology archaeology side of things. ⁓ and then of course Infections and Inequalities by Dr. Paul Farmer, such a great one. And I read that in a medical anthropology class in college too. And really ⁓ it's also on a lot of reading lists, I think, for masters in public health programs. So ⁓ no matter what stage you're at, I think that's a good one if you're interested in this field to take a look at. That's awesome. Thank you so much for coming on. Thanks for having me.